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Fun and games continue with my inde shop and the rear bearings they put in less than 1 year and less than 5k miles ago. I called them up and asked if they would fix it for free. They said "bring the car in, if the bearing is still under warranty, we will fix it for free." So I take a couple of hours out of my workday to drive it in there, and when I get back to the office they called and said Subaru won't warranty the bearing for more than 6 months. My shop won't give me free labor to put another one in, they said. Soooooo, why couldn't they figure all that out and tell me that over the phone instead of wasting my time like this? The answer is, they could. But once they hassle you enough to drop your car off at the shop, they figure you will just buckle and say, "oh ok, since the car is already there, go ahead and replace the bearing again for $375." I told them not to touch it, I will pick it up and fix it myself. And they will get no more of my business.

Hi guys!! I am having SEVERE wheel bearing problems. Since Jan 07, I have replaced all 4 and I about to replace another one. I did get reimbursed from Subaru for 2 of them over the summer, because of a defect but that's it. Thank goodness my husband is able to fix these, but we were only able to get them from the dealer at $150 a shot. I've found them online now a Timken brand for $100 no shipping fee. Anyone else had such a severe problem? If so, how did you fix it or what do you do about it?

Still in process of replacing my driver's rear wheel bearing. Turns out that you only need to melt off the forward lip of the rear lateral link bolt bushing and then the frozen bushing/collar/bolt can be twisted out fairly easily. Took about 7 minutes with the propane torch to burn that lip off. Don't think that you need to actually melt out the entire bushing, you don't. Of course, I had the best of the worst case scenario...only the rear bushing was corrosion welded to the lateral link bolt. The bolt slid thru the front bushing freely.

2001 Forester 93260 miles. Finally got that driver's rear wheel bearing replaced. To review, I had taken this into the inde shop (whose name shall remain County Auto in Somerville, MA) in Dec 2007 to have both rear wheel ball bearings replaced with upgrade roller bearings. Shop assured me they would use the upgrade bearings and do it as Subaru recommends. They charged me about as much as the dealer would have $691. Fairly soon after, the driver's rear bearing began to make noise again. By November, less than 5k miles later it was howling badly. I took it into same shop, they refused to repair for free or reduced charge (they said the Subaru warranty only covered parts for 6 months). So I bought the Hub Tamer and got hold of all necessary tools and new bearing etc and finally replaced it myself on 4/26/9. (Many thanks to HoHieu on this list for all of his advice. And I can share my step by step notes if anyone wants them). Lo and behold, as I tore into the old bearing to remove it..........out tumble a bunch of BALL BEARINGS! They screwed me. Doubtful they did more than slap some more grease in the existing original NTN ball bearings and sent me on my merry way. They will be repaying me, or I will be happy to explain it all to a Small Claims Court judge. And I will hand him the cracked in half ball bearing for emphasis!

Just to wrap this thread up, here is how it got resolved:
Special THANKS to Hieu and Derek who helped me a ton in preparation for my court case!

I won my small claims court case against the inde car repair shop. They repaid the repair bill in full. They had no invoice to show that they ever purchased replacement bearings for my car. Their defense consisted mostly of babbling on about how they have been in business for 20 years and always do good work, and this was a very tough job, and I should have written specifically on the work order to obtain Subaru parts and to replace them according to Subaru specifications if that is how I wanted it done--not just said that to them over the phone, and maybe I should have just gone to the Subaru dealership instead if I wanted it done that way.
Just pitiful.

Hi GG, yes, they actually paid me. I have cashed the check and it cleared. Evidently, here in MA, things have changed so that if the defendent doesn't pay up promptly, it gets very painful very fast for them. And these clowns I dealt with didn't seem like it was their first time on this merry-go-round!